


take fate by the throat

by doubtthestars



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Drabble, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doubtthestars/pseuds/doubtthestars
Summary: The war of attrition Luka wages on the status quo brings him something unexpected.
Relationships: Luka Modrić/Ivan Rakitić, Vedran Ćorluka/Luka Modrić
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	take fate by the throat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brampersandon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brampersandon/gifts).



> this is a very handwavey Sentinel AU that was meant to be part of the Sami/Mandzo universe but ended up not so much. Luka didn't want to play nice okay. Heavily unedited, basically straight out of the blender of my mind. 
> 
> I will take fate by the throat; it will never bend me completely to its will.  
> —Ludwig van Beethoven, from ‘Beethoven’s Letters’

He says the war had nothing to do with his emergence but that’s not exactly true. 

He doesn't know when his Guide abilities truly manifested because he had always been perceptive. He knew which goats were trouble and the people to avoid, or what days his grandfather's back was particularly sore. There wasn't a time when people were hard to read, that is until the war.

The books changed, people changed, suddenly their minds were flashes of pictures and the constant undercurrent of anxiety that Luka couldn't ignore. So he adapted, and found football along the way.

-

Charlie isn't the first latent Sentinel to latch onto him and he probably won't be the last. 

"Think a little less loudly," He's direct because he's learned the value of directness. Charlie doesn't move away, hands proprietary yet soft on his back. He doesn't need to be touched or touch to find stray thoughts especially when they are mostly focused on him.

"You should be flattered." He murmurs without bite, hand sliding to his hip.

"Why, because I can read your mind instead of guessing what you want?" Luka shifts out of reach just to be contrary, just to have a moment to regroup and shield.

"No," He pulls him in, no, he presses his face against his neck, Luka's heart thuds in his chest, no, he cages him in, looks down at him with want in his dark eyes and mirth in his smile. All the actions he wants to take spooling out like a dream. 

"Because I just want _you_." Truth sets him alight. 

Luka drags him down for a kiss.

-

"You are compatible with him." The team’s head of S/G affairs says like he's unsure of how to continue beyond the fact, like Luka is supposed to nod and accept the inevitable conclusion. Dinamo would like them to bond, would prefer to have a Bonded Pair rather than a Prime Guide slipping through their fingers to claim territory elsewhere. 

Theoretically he could bring Charlie online if he wanted to, but he could do that anywhere, at any time, without Dinamo licking its chops to lay claim on him as a Prime.

In the end, Charlie emerges as a Sentinel without his help, without him there because he's out on loan in Bosnia but he feels him through his shields. He plays even harder to prove that he doesn't need a Sentinel at his back to shine. 

Zagreb is Charlie's and Luka is Charlie's but Zagreb isn't Luka's.

-

"You smell like him." Ivan's eyes dart back to Charlie. The jackal at his feet stands alert, wary but curious.

"And?" 

"You're not bonded?" They're not and Ivan knows it but he wants to hear it confirmed beyond the mental absence of what should be there and isn't. Luka appreciates that, appreciates it more because he approached him instead of Charlie to ask.

"No," Luka had spent years saying no to that question because it's a much more complicated answer.

The jackal shakes his whole body, eager or puzzled. Luka doesn't pry.

"So, we're roommates then." Again, he looks at Charlie and Charlie looks back this time because he absolutely loves fucking with people's expectations of him. Ivan doesn't flinch, doesn't look away until Charlie laughs, head thrown back in a roar of mirth.

-

He bites now, older and more in tune with himself.

"Captain," He croons like it's blasphemy to say it so soon, like it wasn't always going to end up like this. The word on his tongue and him under Luka. 

"Don't be jealous." He pants, digging his fingertips into his thighs. He's nowhere near jealous, but his pride spills over messily, urgently like Luka wouldn't pay attention to it unless he felt it here and now in its entirety. It's distracting. 

He hopes he leaves bruises.

Charlie hums and there goes the snap-burst of want and the snare's edge of perfection, united body and mind. Luka lets go, lets himself fall into Charlie's mind like he's hurling off a cliff without checking if there's anything to break his fall. 

One day, he might break Charlie instead with the force of his pull, and rearrange him into someone unrecognizable.

 _You love me_ , floats somewhere into the space they occupy within each other.

 _That's why I'm afraid._ He doesn't say out loud, but knows Charlie can hear it anyway.

-

Ivan misses the penalty and Luka is there right beside him.

"Where's your shadow?" Derisive to cover up the hurt.

"Why, do you want him to make you feel better?" Luka has never pushed whatever it was between them, has never asked, only known there was something to push.

"You're not here to make me feel better." Ivan doesn't want to feel better, or he does but not like this.

"I'm not," Luka agrees because he’s also to blame, for wanting too much. 

In the room they share, his lynx pins Ivan’s jackal to the carpet with careful paws and sharp claws as Luka blows Ivan and finds another piece of the puzzle unlocked.

-

Where Charlie is giving, Ivan takes.

Where Charlie lets go, Ivan clings.

-

“Do you talk about me with Charlie?” Barcelona air stings his nose, but it’s Ivan’s nose that scrunches in response.

“Your pillow talk needs work.” 

“You didn’t answer my question.” 

“This is us, that’s not a part of this, and what Charlie and I do isn’t part of this either.” That was part of Ivan’s problem, he set his boundaries early and without a thought to the contrary. Luka tried his best to dissuade him of it.

“Sentinels aren’t made to be together.” Ivan takes his hand, _not like Guides and Sentinels_. Luka wants to shred, claw the thought apart viciously, but gets up to slide off the bed instead.

“So it’s just fucking.” He spits out, tired all of a sudden. 

Ivan doesn’t let him go. 

“It’s as much just fucking as this is.” His voice is threaded with pain, confusion, pleading. 

_So not at all then._ Luka kisses him hard, stealing the doubt away.

-

It takes a year or two to get them in a room together willingly to talk about it.

"You're a Prime." Charlie doesn't ease into the conversation. Luka hates him just a little for it. 

"Does that mean I can't choose?" He spits out annoyed, always annoyed about expectations and the traps within them. Ivan wants to leave and Charlie looks like he's ready to rail against something unavoidable, ready to argue with gods to make his point.

"What _does_ it mean for you?" Ivan asks, ever cautious, but quick to pounce on .

"It means, I want you both with me." Luka says calmly, steady with the truth finally spoken out loud. Charlie bares his teeth, angry.

"No, you're a Prime, Luka, You deserve more than-" His voice breaks, goes silent. He stares straight through Luka, a wave of mixed up emotions rolling off of him.

"More than what, Charlie. You're an Alpha Sentinel and you're mine," Luka had never said it before and he thinks it was a mistake not to say it sooner as the layers of Charlie's hurt and hope wash over him. 

For years he had held onto some kernel of doubt-resignation of one day being left behind for better, for some imaginary Prime Sentinel. Luka wants to blot that thought under his thumb, bury it into nonexistence where it belonged because it was wrong.

He goes up on his toes, grabs Charlie's face, pulls him down. 

"If you wanted to be a Prime, I could make you one." That's alarming, to both Ivan and Charlie. He can feel it under the riot of thoughts already present.

"Luka," Ivan starts but doesn't know where to end so he holds onto Charlie instead, the loose hand around his wrist as obvious as the one Luka has on Charlie’s shirt.

"Primes, more than anyone need their true match. That's what everyone believes right? Except there are a handful of Primes for every generation born and most of them are Guides, so how does that add up? We bond, and our Sentinels can become Primes. I don't want a Prime Sentinel, I want you. I want you both, however you want to be." He lays out the logic like a blanket, inviting them to sit with him.

The choice was always theirs.

-

Croatia sings for its Primes, and they sweat, bleed and shout for it back, even if they only have second place to show for it. 

If balance was the ultimate goal in this life, then Luka had found it with them.


End file.
